“Yeah sure, no problem.”
“Sam, we’ll talk after dinner, okay?”
“You got it,” he nodded.
I went into my room and lay down on my stomach, thinking about how Sam would fit in our little group and if he would cause any problems. I slept on and off for about an hour. The pain was pretty bad and when I knew I couldn’t sleep any longer I got up and headed out to the living room. I watched everyone go about their business, and as I sat there with nothing to do for the first time in a long time, I felt useless. I was damaged and couldn’t help anyone, I could barely put on my own pants. I was just about to go take a look at the armory to see if any work had been done when Sarah appeared. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I made you a sling, put it on,” she grabbed my arm, forcing it into the fabric sling.
“Ah shit, ok. Be a little more gentle,” I hissed.
“If you’re tough enough to something dumb like jump off a roof then you’re tough enough to handle me being a little rough.”
“Hey, I kept my promise didn’t I?” She just looked at me with a frown. “What? I didn’t say I’d come back in one piece,” I said grinning. She huffed as she walked away. I was getting really good at pissing her off. I shook my head and started off towards the armory. I found Sam checking a few of the weapons. “You know how to use those?”
“Damn straight,” he said.
“Show me,” I challenged.
I unclipped my radio and sent out a message on both channels. “Hey this is James, I’m taking Sam out shooting. Don’t worry about any shots heard in the next twenty minutes or so.” Reaching the makeshift firing range Sam started off using a .306. He wasn’t lying, he could shoot, and he was at least as good as me or Thomas. Next, he pulled out a pistol and took aim and proved to me that he knew how to shoot. Walking down range I saw he had a nice tight grouping. I decided that while I was out of action Sam would be the point man. I had to try shooting with my left hand, something I had never done before, to see if I wasn’t completely useless. I raised my arm and took careful aim. Keeping my arm from moving was incredibly hard without the support of both my hands. I squeezed the trigger and watched as my hand jumped from the recoil. I watched as my spacing grew worse and worse as my hand got weaker. In close combat I could probably hold my own until my magazine ran out, reloading would almost be impossible if I didn’t want to tear my stitches. If it ever came to hitting a further target I wouldn’t even come close.
“Wow, you suck,” said Sam.
“Hey, fuck you,” I replied. “Let’s see you shoot with your left hand while you have a fresh hole in your shoulder.”
“Point taken.”
“Alright, let’s head in and I’ll fill you in on what’s going on around here.” As we walked I went over the fence, plans to raid the hospital, police station, stores and the general workings of the house.
“You’ve got a sweet little deal going on here.”
“All we’ve been doing is surviving. Just doing the best we can.”
“Yeah but you’ve got it pretty good. All your friends doing exactly what you tell them to do.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Right,” I said brushing off his comment “Anyways I wanted to talk to you about being the point man for as long as I’m out of commission if you’re staying that is.”
“Hell yeah, I’m staying.”
“Good. Like I said I need you to be point man when we go on…”
“Missions?” interjected Sam.
“Yeah, sure, missions. You know Astoria just like I do so if the shit ever hits the fan then you can lead everyone to safety and then back here.”
“I can do that,” said Sam nodding.
“Good, because I can’t do shit with this shoulder.”
“Well, I’m not going to help you shit.”
“And I will never ask you to.”
That night at dinner it was the first time Sam had the chance to meet everyone at the same time. “… and that’s Liz, Sarah and the little one next to her is Michelle,” I said as I finished pointing out everyone around the table. “Everyone this is my friend Sam, he’s going to be staying with us.” After dinner I sat with Sam in the formal living room next to the wooden stove which we used to heat the house. “Beer?” I asked him.
“Shit yeah. Never had the room to carry any on the road and I used up all that I found in the houses I stayed in. Plus, it was all warm.”
“Well these are still coldish,” I told him as I got up to get the beer. I returned with two beers and took my seat.
As I handed one to Sam he asked, “So what’s with the kid?”
“Who, Michelle?”
“Yeah.”
“Well we were headed here and when we passed through Vernonia we had to slow down to weave through some Walkers.”
“Wait. Walkers?” interrupted Sam.
“Yeah Walkers. You know, Zombies, Undead, those rotting things that try to eat us. We call those Walkers.”
“Ok, continue.”
“Anyways, we had to slow done and I guess Sarah just heard a scream somehow. We decided to find out what it came from. We found out where it came from and while I led the Walkers away Sarah and the rest rescued Michelle.”
“Ballsy.”
“Not really, besides we couldn’t leave her there,” I said.
“Still, stopping for one little girl?” questioned Sam.
“I would have stopped for anyone, it’s us versus them now and we’re outnumbered a million to one.”
“Whatever you say,” replied Sam taking a swig of his beer
We finished our drinks and our talk and I decided to turn in since I had the second watch. I told Sam that the girls slept in the master bedroom and he could practically sleep anywhere he wants. I said good night, headed to bed and woke up to the crackle of the radio.
“Jason,” I heard Matt say “Jason pickup.”
I heard Jason mumble “Yeah, what is it?”
“Hey man, it’s James’ watch but I think we should let him rest.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” said Jason “I’ll take his shift, Justin can take mine.”
“I can take my own damn watch,” I said harshly over the radio.
“No,” said Jason.
“What!?”
“I said no. You can’t shoot a rifle and if anything happens all you’ll do is waste time while someone else responds. Sorry, man but this is safer, plus you could use the rest.”
“Fine,” I said angrily, not willing to argue. I must have rolled on my shoulder while I slept because my shoulder was screaming at me. I downed some painkillers I’d put by the bed and fell back asleep. The next time I woke it was morning, I got up and saw everyone eating and getting ready for the day. I knew my shoulder would prevent me from doing any real work so I had to think of something to do. Physical labor would have to be limited, most of our plans had already been fine-tuned and most if not all the inside chores were readily taken care of. I decided that I hadn’t had any real time to see how everyone was getting along so I would take some time to talk to everyone. The first person I ran into was Liz. She was sitting with Michelle, reading a book.
“Hello ladies,” I said with a smile.
“Hey,” said Liz.
“Hi James,” Michelle said shyly.
“So I just wanted to know how you girls are doing and if there was anything you needed.”
“Actually now that you mention if I would really like to get some more books. For me, Michelle and for people in general. I think it would be a good idea to have almanacs and tech manuals, things like that.”
“I think we can manage that one of these days. I’ll add the Public Library to the list of places we’ll hit. Just know that it might be a while, the hospital, and grocery stores are more important.”
“Thanks James.”
I nodded and looked at Michelle “What about you? Is there anything special that
you’d like me to get?” She shook her head. “You sure? No toys, games, stuffed animals?” When I said stuffed animal she learned and looked at me with wide eyes. I smiled. “What kind of animal would you like?” I asked.
“Maybe a… a horse,” she said hesitantly.
“A horse it is,” I said happily “and maybe I’ll find a couple other little presents.” Speaking to Hannah and Jessica. they both wanted fresh fruit, something that I didn’t know if I could pull off. I was sure that all the fruit in the grocery stores would have been as rotten as the people wandering the streets but I might know a couple places where I could find some apples. They might be bitter but it wouldn’t be coming out of a can or a jar. Talking with Matt, Jason and everyone else I composed a list of luxury goods that people hoped to get. The list included an acoustic guitar, vodka, some very specific snack food and, something I knew would be out of the question, ice cream. I told everyone that I’d do my best to bring them what they wanted but that there were priorities that had to be taken care of first. By the end of the day, I had had a chance to talk to everyone but Thomas, who was on.
“Hey Thomas, how are you doing?” I asked as I stepped onto the roof.
“Not much, all quiet out here,” he said.
“That’s good but that’s not what I meant. How are you doing, personally?”
“I’m good actually. Just trying to take each day as it comes.”
“At least you’ve got a good outlook on things,” I said. “So, listen, I’ve been asking people of there are anything special or personal items that they might want.”
“Well, actually there are a few things,” he said, trailing off.
“Name it.”
“It’s kind of embarrassing. You know what, just forget I said anything. I’ll get it all when we raid the store.”
“Hey man we might not get to the store for a while and you know you don’t have to be embarrassed about anything, not with me.”
“I guess.”
“Then what is it?”
“Well, Christina and I haven’t had a lot of time together but our anniversary is coming up and we are hoping to have some us time.”
“Say no more,” I said grinning, “I’ve got your back. When is your anniversary?”
“Two weeks.”
“Alright, two weeks from now you’ll have everything you need to make the night memorable.”
“No, you don’t have to do that.” he objected
“Oh, but I do,” I said with a smile, “I’ve been there so I’ll make sure you stay out of the doghouse.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Anytime,” I said as I headed down the ladder.
I couldn’t help but grin as I left the roof. Thomas and Christina have been together for about two years now. I completely understood how Thomas felt, wanting to be close to someone who he cared about. I figured that if I didn’t have anyone to care for I would at least help Thomas out. I hoped to keep this a secret, possibly only including the guys and maybe, and this was a big maybe, Sarah. This would at least give me something to work on or at least distract me from being so useless to everyone. I hoped that in a couple days, a week tops, I could start using my shoulder and be able to do more than put my own pants on.
The next day I enlisted the help of Justin, Jason, and Matt to begin planning how we could give Thomas and Christina one night in paradise. We would accelerate our plan to clear out the pole barn. In addition to getting rid of the junk, there was some work that had to be done. A lot of insulation had been ripped out by nesting birds so the pole barn lost quite a lot of heat at night. It would have to be replaced, so would some of the drywall.
Several days passed like usual, I was still taking antibiotics just in case but I no longer used the sling, mostly out of my own pride. I worked my shoulder in slow circles and did very light stretches, enough to keep my muscles busy but not enough to rip my stitches. The pain was manageable if I popped a few Tylenol, but I was sure the itching around the suture was going to kill me or drive me insane. Three more days had passed and while my shoulder still killed me, I could use it. It would take months until the wound was completely healed and the scar faded but for now, I wasn’t as useless.
The guys had made quite a lot of headway in the pole barn. Most of the old boxes had been sorted through, the guys using their best judgment on whether or not to toss something, but I always had final say. We moved everything that we were going to keep, mostly camping and hunting supplies, upstairs leaving a few bikes and an old pool table on the ground floor.
For the next two days, we pulled out old drywall and insulation and replaced it with what was left from the original job. After that was done I had seven days until their anniversary and I had some special items to pick up. I figured I’d give myself some time to plan and see if I could shoot again with my right hand. That night I made another map of Astoria and marked where I thought I could find the specialty items for everyone. I marked out the best route I could see and put everything away. Tomorrow I would hit the shooting range and the day after that I would take off early to find everything.
I had resumed taking watch like everyone else but I’m pretty sure that they still thought I needed rest or to take it easy because all they would give me was the first shift, which was considered the easiest. As I was sitting on the roof watching the road through my night vision binoculars I heard someone come up the ladder and from the sound of the light footsteps and the pitch of the voice as she grunted I could tell it was Sarah. “Hi Sarah,” I said without looking away from the road.
“How’d you know it was me?” she asked.
“Oh come on, it’s me, how could I not notice you,” I said putting down the binoculars and smiling.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said sitting next to me.
“So what’s up?”
“Well, it’s about Sam,” she said hesitantly.
“What about him?”
“Well some people, mostly some of the girls, have come to me complaining about him.”
“What’s he been doing?” I asked seriously.
“They say he’s been bossing them around, telling them to do stuff, not asking, but telling, like he’s in charge.”
“Ok… why hasn’t anyone come to tell me?”
“Well I think it’s because he’s your friend and people think that you might get upset if someone says something against him.”
I sat there and stared off into the darkness for a little while before asking “Do you believe that?”
“Believe what?”
“Believe that I’d get angry if they came to me with a complaint about Sam?”
She stared at me, looked directly into my eyes, I felt as if she was staring into my soul. She broke contact, smiled sadly and said “No, I don’t think you would.”
She turned to look off to her left and I noticed her wince a little. “What’s up with the neck?” I asked.
She looked at me and frowned. “How did you …?”
“I notice things remember? I thought we just covered this. You should really pay more attention,” I smiled.
“Oh shush. I pulled a muscle lifting something. It’s fine.”
I scooted back and patted the sleeping bag in front of me. “Have a seat,” I said. She slid in front of me and I handed her the binoculars. “Keep us safe ok?”
I placed my hands on her neck and she shivered, “That’s cold.”
“Sorry,” I said removing my hands. I rubbed them together quickly to warm them up. Placing my hand back on her neck I asked “Better?”
“Much.”
“Good.” I started to rub, feeling the tight muscles of her neck and working them out. I made sure to use enough pressure to work the muscle but not enough to hurt her. I moved on to her shoulders, feeling even more knots. I could tell as I worked the knots that she was enjoying it. I moved further down her back until I realized that while in a seated position I wouldn’t be able to do a very good job, so I moved back up to her
neck. I let my fingers move to the base of her scalp, applying light pressure. I noticed that her breathing had evened and her head was beginning to droop. “You’re not doing a very good job of protecting us,” I said.
“But you’re doing such a good job,” she mumbled.
“I can tell, you’re almost asleep,” I said with a chuckle.
“Am not.”
I smiled, “Come on, let’s go inside and get you to bed.”
“Just a couple more minutes. I’ll stay awake, I swear.”
Survivors Series (Book 1): Heroes Aren't Born Page 10